There were maybe a hundred “illegal” people milling about, but it’s that little girl spinning in the Miami sunshine, her ribboned braids flying while her dress billowed, making those skinny legs look even skinnier that I remember. She was only about 6 or 7 and so beautiful and hopeful and expectant. And so loved. Her best foot – tiny and clad in brilliant white patent leather and ruffled, lacy socks – would be forward when she reached the shores of a land that didn’t want her. Her momma, her daddy, had made sure of that.

A blip in the crowd waiting to be arrested, processed and sent back, she filled my TV screen with her exuberance, her love of life, of the moment she was in. I smiled at her joy, marveled that she was so bright and fresh after getting off that rickety boat, wondered if she was doomed.

This is my day to write about Haiti.

I did have an article all planned. Been gathering material for it, blocking out the points I wanted to make and all that was left was the writing.

But the writing of that wouldn’t come. Only the echoes of a little girl dancing at the edges of my memory, flashing her huge smile and her shiny shoes and her fluffy white dress with the big, pink bow.

Care

[ETA, from this article, “The Dangerous Desire to Adopt Haitian Children”]

The answer is not to stop loving, or to stop trying to understand, but to realize that our love is always endangered by selfishness. If we ever think our love is pure, we need to stop thinking along that track, take a step back and think again. Don’t stop loving, just stop thinking that your love is infallible and all-knowing.

I’ll close with a few reality-based ways to help Haitian children in Haitian families in the short term:

- Donate to SOS Children’s Villages, Save the Children or UNICEF.  
- Sign this AIUSA petition to request an end to interdiction-at-sea policy  
- Contact your representative. Ask them to support an increase in refugee visas for Haitians and expedited family reunification visas for Haitian-Americans. Ask them to support the airlift of Haitian children unaccompanied by family ONLY for the purposes of temporary medical hosting and NOT for the purposes of adoption.  
- If you live close to a Haitian-American community, contact their organizations and ask if there is anything you can do to support community efforts.

(photo from here)